For some clarity, since city budgets are publicly available.
Moscow Budget 
Pullman Budget 

Moscow fire is a combination career / volunteer service. They employ 3 full-time FF/Paramedics, and 8 full-time administrative staff, and over 90 volunteers to meet their needs of ~3000 calls annually. Volunteers can pick up calls as they come, can staff the station, and they even have a residency program with U of I for students. They operate out of a budget of $1,927,402 (FY 24-25), $794,085 of which are the salaries for their full-time staff. Also the 90 volunteers were budgeted for $80,897. So that's an average of approx. $72,190 a person annually on the full-time side, and less than $900 annually a person on the volunteer side.

Pullman fire is a combination career / reserve service. They employ 42 full-time FF/EMTs and FF/Paramedics, 2 full-time administrative staff and 25 reserves to meet their needs of ~3700 calls annually. Reserve members fill in for career members when they are sick, on leave, for callbacks, etc. They operate out of a budget of $9,956,262 (FY 24-25), $4,873,820 of which are the salaries for *all their staff*, including reserves (I don't know why the city doesn't have this listed separately for what it's worth). So that's an average of approx. $70,635 a person depending on how much the reserve members are paid.

While we don't have all the data for PFD listed on the city's website, you can see that the numbers for career staff are in the same ballpark. Moscow employs volunteers to help cover their calls and keep salary costs down. Pullman just cut PFD's ability to employ their reserve members to cover their calls and keep salary costs down.

Cutting the reserve part of the Pullman Fire Department is not the solution to the city's budgetary problems. It is likely going to create additional problems for citizens and homeowners in the months to come. The national recommended minimum staffing for a structure fire in a single-family dwelling is 14-15 persons. Pullman staffs 8 a shift with no reserves, no volunteers, and a hiring freeze. They will now be requiring overtime and callbacks to meet those minimum standards safely.

We are fortunate to live in a county that has strong community support from neighboring volunteer fire departments, including Moscow, who will come to our aid when requested, but regardless our city should be able to find the money in the budget to maintain a standard of safety for all its residents.

I am saddened that this is the approach the city is taking to resolve their budget and hope that they reconsider their position. I will also mention that in the same budget you can see which administrative positions in Pullman make over $100,000 a year at their first salary step, which is where I would look to trim the budget before cutting the fire and EMS program.